I could feel wet, slimy muscles push me down into what I could only assume was the gullet of the creature. My arms were pinned to my side and I was covered in sticky mucus. I still had my knife in my hand and I struck out as much as I could. My knife found purchase, but the muscles continued to bulge and push me down. After a few more waves of muscle, the swath of damage my knife produced must have been noticed because it abruptly stopped. Suddenly, the muscles started to ripple quickly, and then a large wave of the muscles pushed me in the opposite direction. The process happened again and I had to tighten my grip to keep the knife from being dislodged.

I felt the ripple of the muscles a third time, but there was no large wave to push me back. The creature was probably trying to throw me back up, but my knife was hurting it either way. I wasn’t going to wait for it to decide what to do with me, so I dug my life in a little further. The esophagus or intestines - or wherever I was - trembled. I was able to keep digging my knife deeper and I made a little bit of space and leverage for me to spin toward the opening.

I dragged the knife up slowly, turning the previous laceration I made into a larger gash. Once my arm was bent at a ninety-degree angle and I was able to push my knife deeper, I did so. The muscles shivered and rippled, gaining intensity until a large muscly wave, swiftly followed by gushing bodily fluids pushed me in the direction I entered.

I was spit from the creature and struck with terrifying vertigo, as it seemed like I was suspended in the air. In that split second, I feared that I was going to fall to my doom. The fear left as I felt something press against my back and I realized that I was sliding.

My slide slowed as my trajectory leveled out. I felt around the area I was in and only touched smooth, slimy rock that curved around into a tunnel that was about four feet in diameter. I sat up slowly, careful not to hit my head on the low hanging ceiling. As I was spinning around to try and gain some purchase and decide which way to go, I was struck hard in my side.

I folded around the source of the impact, which I assumed was the same creature that swallowed me. I could feel myself being pushed along the tunnel by the creatures head and I knew this because I could feel its mouth.

I twisted my body to face the creature as it continued to push me along the tunnel. I struck out with my knife, which I thankfully didn’t drop. The creature filled up a large portion of the tunnel, so I didn’t have a lot of space to attack it. Still, I stabbed at it repeatedly, with the first couple attempts glancing off harmlessly from it hardened hide. As I continued trying, because there wasn’t much else I could do, I noticed that there were softer portions of its skin where my blade sunk in deeper.

I didn’t think about it while it was happening, I kept expecting to fall out of the hole back into the area I was swallowed from, but we just kept sliding along the tunnel. Eventually, the creature started to slow, but I didn’t stop stabbing it. Eventually it stopped, yet still, I didn’t stop stabbing it. I couldn’t see the glow, but I could feel the warmth and some of the energy returning to me, indicating that the creature was dead, so I stabbed it some more. Eventually, I stopped stabbing…eventually.

After I stopped, I sheathed my knife, which took me a minute due to the confined space and the fact that I was covered in gods knows what. My body was so inundated and covered in different types of mold, slime, and other body fluids that my nose stopped working, and I was thankful for the reprieve. After a quick rest to catch my breath and gather my strength, I started to crawl in the direction I believed was where I had come.

The crawl was slow and monotonous. The small tunnel was surprisingly uniform, at least to the touch. It was smooth and covered in a mixture of some kind of slime or moss, it was hard to tell in the dark, but it made getting any type of traction problematic. My arms and legs kept slipping out from under me on level surfaces and occasionally there were slight rises and falls in the slope. Going down wasn’t too hard, I just slid, but I was always worried about striking something or falling while I did it. Going up was the real challenge, and I had to claw my way up and sometimes use my knife for a better purchase. Regardless of how steep, I always had to take a rest at the top of a slope.

After a particularly difficult slope, I crawled onward a few feet to make sure the ground leveled out and as I reached forward, I couldn’t feel anything underneath my hand. I almost fell forward, but I still had three other points of contact that stopped me. After catching my breath, I slowly felt around the area. It seemed the tunnel made a sharp turn downward and at a steep angle. I continued to search around the area and I even tried to reach down the hole to see how far it went, hoping to find an edge that would indicate it was where I was swallowed.

I checked around with my feet to see if there was another side of the hole, but I couldn’t feel anything. Only one way to go.

I attempted to lower myself slowly, but as soon as I tried to grab the opposite side of the wall to slowly lower myself down, my hands and feet slid easily down the sides. I only slid for a second before my feet, which had been braced uselessly on either side of the shaft were no longer touching the wall. Then my hands followed suit. I grit my teeth in fear while I prepared to buckle my legs and roll as soon as I felt anything solid, but almost as soon as my hands stopped touching the wall, my legs struck the ground. It was hard ground that didn’t slip out from under me.

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I checked my surroundings searching the ground first for my equipment that I dropped. I checked in concentric circles, getting wider each time I went around. I eventually encountered the wall and still didn’t find my gear. After checking the perimeter of the area, I came to a worrying conclusion. I was in a different place than I had been.

Unlike the previous area that had four paths, including the one I entered from, this area only had three. I was in a dungeon with no light, no food, only my knife for a weapon, and I had no idea where I was.

Shit!

##

I took a nap before I did anything else. At that point, I didn’t really care if anything came upon me and ate me when I was asleep.

After waking to a continued lack of any light, I checked to see if I could gain any type of idea of where to go. There were no indications that any path was better than another. With my hand running along the wall, I slowly moved forward.

I walked in a dreamscape of internal nightmares. One where I tried to run through a lake of peanut butter while my target moved back like a teleporting ghost. It could have been for years, months, or days that I walked through the dream world, but in moments of lucidity, I knew it couldn’t have been that long since I was still alive. My water source was with my pack and I knew that I would die of dehydration after a few days.

I continued to live, but my throat was the surface of Mars. My stomach was the space between stars. My mind floated from the bowels of hell to the edge of time where heaven begins.

What the hell am I talking about?

I was pulled from my ceaseless trudge when I could suddenly see the outline of my hand along the rock wall. I looked around and sure enough, I could see outlines of rocks that were protruding from the cave walls. Although I could begin to see outlines, I couldn’t discover the source of the light, but I knew that it could only be further forward.

I readied my knife, just in case, and then continued down the path. Slowly everything became more visible. Then, after a few more minutes of walking, I could discern a glow coming from around a bend in the cave. It wasn’t the glow of sunlight or even electric light, but the constant shifting and flickering of firelight.

I quietly moved forward and hugged the wall. Before I came to the bend, I paused and peeked around.

The small pathway I had been walking abruptly stopped just after the corner and opened up to a huge cavern. There was a lot I couldn’t see, but I was looking at a city, a city filled with small, green and pointy-eared creatures.

The city seemed to be carved out of the rock and resembled some of the Native American cities that had similar dwellings in the past. Each side of the cavern had three to four levels, depending on what was carved or built before. Each of the levels seemed to be a mixture of adobe, primitive construction material and carved out of the rock. There were many doors and what I assumed were windows all over the place, and almost every door had a small torch burning outside.

It was a bustling little village with many of the small creatures walking around and moving between buildings. However, most of the movement was on the ground floor, which seemed like it might have been where all the craftsman might have been because sometimes a creature would go in a room empty-handed and come out with something, but it was more because of the number of creatures on the bottom. I analyzed the closest one.

Goblin –Laborer

Level 3

They were clearly a sentient species, but I didn’t know how friendly they were. Therefore, I stayed in the shadows as I continued to observe them. After a couple of minutes, I noticed a closer area that I could get to and still be hidden by the shadows.

Most of the goblins in the area were low-level workers, but I occasionally saw a goblin with a spear. When I saw the first one and analyzed it, I found that it was a level five soldier. The level wasn’t an issue, but they probably had a lot more somewhere. I needed to figure out how to make it out of this place and I wanted to do it quickly and quietly. I also needed to find a secure place to look over my status screen. I wanted to do it right then and I could have, but I didn’t want to risk not being aware of my surroundings in such a dangerous area.

I moved quickly to the other area that was covered in shadows. I was close to a small protruding adobe hut that had been built on the ground floor. Once I was nestled in the shadows, I was happy to discover that there was a small gap between the hut and the cavern wall. It was a tight fit, but I squeezed my way through it so I could get to the other side and find a way to go from there.

I was about halfway through the gap when I heard, “Gubba Gubba Patubba,” or some shit like that coming from behind me.

I turned and two goblin soldiers were standing at the gap’s entrance. The first goblin had his spear pointed at me and sticking about a foot into the gap. The second just stood behind him glaring.

“Gubba,” the second goblin said.

I heard movement from the direction I had been going and before I could react, I felt something pinch my neck. I tried to turn my head, but the pinch became a sharp stab. I reached up and pulled a small metal dart with a feathery red end out of my neck.

Once it was dislodged, I was able to turn and I saw a third goblin, which was blocking my path and holding a blow dart gun to his face. My eyes unfocused and I felt nauseous for a moment as my head felt like it became too heavy for my neck. I tried to fight the feeling and I pressed my head to the cool rock wall that I was pushed up against. I was so tired and the cool rock felt good against my skin. I decided to just wait there for a minute, enjoy the feeling and maybe take a nap.